DK 
<*4 



AN AUTHENTIC REPORT 

♦ 

OF 

THE PROCEEDINGS 

# 1ST THE 

TRADES' HALL, GLASSFORD STREET, 
* 

ON THE EVENING OF 

FRIDAY, the 29th NOVEMBER, 1833, 
THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY 

OF 

theNSlasgow polish association. 




PUBLISHED FOR THE ASSOCIATION, BY AUTHORITY OF THE 
COMMITTEE. 



GLASGOW : 

W. STUART, AND JOHN REID & CO. 
1833. 



J) K 4 \* 

'Or* 



COLVILLE, PRINTER. 



The Second Anniversary Meeting of the Glasgow Polish 
Association was held in the Trades' Hall, on the evening 
of Friday the 29th November, 1833. Soon after the doors 
were thrown open, the place of meeting was crowded by a highly 
respectable audience ; and at a few minutes past eight o'clock, 
the Lord Provost of the City entered the Hall, attended by 
several Members of the Council, many other Gentlemen of first 
respectability, and by the Committee of the Association. On 
reaching the platform erected in the Hall, his Lordship was 
greeted with the most enthusiastic applause, and took the chair, 
on the motion of Charles Tennent, Esq. of St. Rollox, 
amidst the cheering of the meeting, and the general waving of 
hats and handkerchiefs. 

On taking the chair, the Lord Provost addressed a few 
words to the meeting, expressive of the pleasure he felt in at- 
tending such an assemblage of his fellow citizens, and thanked 
them for the honour they had done him in calling him to the 
chair. He considered, however, that it would be an infringe- 
ment on their time for him to say a single word on the subject 
for which they were met, and he would therefore leave it to 
those who were more able and ready to do so. 

Mr. John Gull an, Honorary Secretary to the Asso- 
ciation, then addressed the meeting as follows: — My Lord 
Provost — On the twenty-ninth of November, 1832, the first 



4 



public meeting of the Glasgow Polish Association was held. 
— That meeting cannot have passed from the recollections 
of those who were present. The enthusiasm which prevailed, 
and the unanimous and unqualified approval of our exertions 
in the sacred cause of liberty, were good omens of our ultimate 
success, and strong inducements to persevere in our efforts to 
rouse the dormant energies of our countrymen, to aid us in our 
labours, and enlarge the sphere of our influence. Since our 
last anniversary meeting, your Committee have been unceasing 
in their exertions to further, by every means in their power, 
the objects of the Association. A correspondence, of an in- 
teresting and extensive nature, has been carried on with the 
Parent Society in London, the Hull and other Associations. 
From the Committee of the Polish Emigration in Paris, we 
received an Address, breathing the heart-feelings of a patriot 
but an exiled band, and expressing, in the language of the soul, 
gratitude for our exertions — prayers for our success. Friends 
of Poland, listen to the words of the exiles : 

" Though still struggling with adversity and persecution, and 
daily receiving distressing news from our native country, we have 
yet a small ray of hope and consolation in hearing that you, noble 
Britons, assemble to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunate Polish 
pilgrims, and that your powerful voices are heard in our cause. 
Your names are engraved in our hearts — they have resounded in 
our homes, now bathed in tears — and in spite of the cruel vigilance 
of our oppressors, they have made our fathers and mothers shed the 
first tears of consolation — for they were tears of gratitude and ad- 
miration. Thousands of families bless you, and have inscribed your 
names in the pages of our history, so celebrated by our misfortunes, 
and still more so by the sympathy of the civilized nations of Europe, 
and the sorrow they have testified at our disasters. 

" Glory to the age in which all liberal-minded men have shown 
us a brotherly friendship, and in which people of every nation tend 
to a great and general alliance, which must shortly cause the down- 
fal of tyranny and despotism." 

Such are the sentiments expressed in a letter which your 
Committee lately received from Poles in Paris ; and it must be 
gratifying to all that our exertions, however feeble, have at least 
carried consolation to the lonely wanderer, far from his country 
and his home. (Cheers.) 

Your Committee exerted themselves, and successfully, in 
procuring a meeting, for the purpose of petitioning Parliament 



5 



to atone for past inattention to Poland, by effectual interfer- 
ence in her behalf — either by mediation, remonstrance or other- 
wise. The petition, very numerously signed, was presented to 
the House by R. Cutler Ferguson, Esq. previous to his motion 
regarding Poland. Though the House was unanimous in de- 
precating the conduct of Russia, the majority deemed it inex- 
pedient to interfere in any manner whatever. Yes, countrymen, 
inexpedient to put a stop to atrocities which have no parallel 
in history, — inexpedient to prevent the tyrant from gorging 
himself with the blood of fresh victims — of helpless innocence. 
" Tell it not in Gath," that England, who drained her trea- 
sures, and shed the blood of thousands of her veteran sons, to 
restore a dynasty whose sway was ever at the expense of free 
dom ; that England, once mistress of the seas — when virtue 
called upon her for aid — when the bulwarks against barbarian- 
ism and infidelity were about to be broken down — deemed it 
inexpedient to interfere, ay, even when her honour was at stake, 
— but permitted the spoiler to walk abroad at noon-day. Cold 
and heartless policy ! " How are the mighty fallen !" — ( Great 
cheering.) 

The liberal donations and subscriptions received during the 
year, have enabled us to extend relief to several Polish refu- 
gees, and particularly to one who resided here last winter ; and 
when the poet and patriot Niemceivicz, the fellow-prisoner and 
worthy companion of Kosciusko, visited Glasgow, your Com- 
mittee waited on the venerable old man — grown gray in his 
country's service — and exerted themselves to further the objects 
of his visit; and thus was formed the society for the educa- 
tion of the Polish youths, of which our honourable Chairman 
is President. 

We have circulated gratis, several hundred copies of the 
Hull Polish Record, and other pamphlets regarding Poland; 
and as the Hull Record is to be resumed under the auspices of 
the various Polish Associations throughout Britain, your Com- 
mittee are very desirous to circulate three or four hundred 
copies monthly ; as it is a periodical of considerable talent, 
and eminently adapted to give every information regarding the 
condition of Poland. We have also received and circulated 
several copies of The Polish Exile, a work edited by Polish 
refugees in Edinburgh. 

These are very brief details of what has been done during 
the past year. Were I to enter fullv into the labours of the 
A 2 



6 



Committee, I would require hours, instead of minutes, for that 
purpose. 

Glasgow had the honour of forming the first Polish Asso- 
ciation in Scotland. At first, it was looked upon as chimeri- 
cal; but what, Gentlemen, have been the results? Though 
Poland still lies prostrate 'neath the heel of the Nero of the 
North, — though the legislature considered it inexpedient to in- 
terfere in any way in her behalf, — yet, through the length and 
breadth of our land, associations, having the same objects in 

view with ourselves, have been formed, and are formino-. 

Where, a few months ago, the greatest apathy prevailed, all is 
now energy and enthusiasm. Edinburgh, Leith, Stirling, 
Perth, Aberdeen, and Dalkeith, have at length bestirred them- 
selves. May the same spirit be infused into every town and 
hamlet — into every patriot breast — till, at last, Scotland be but 
one general association, to raise, loud and high, the cry of 
righteous indignation against the despot who fain would lord it 
o'er the world. — ( Cheers.) 

" A tear for Poland ?" Not one tear 

For thee, devoted land ! may fall ; 
Shall honour wail o'er freedom's bier, 

Nor fiercely start at freedom's call: 
And uttering vengeance deep and loud, 

Cries that might wake the warrior dead, 
Hurl, like the flash from thunder cloud, 

Destruction on the tyrant's head ? 

"A tear for Poland ?" Oh 'twere shame, 

O'er wrongs like her's to wail and weep ; 
Where, England, is thine ancient fame — 

Where do thy pride and prowess sleep ? 
The time has been, my country, when, 

To snatch from despot's bloody chain 
That glorious band of patriot men, 

Thou had'st not been invoked in vain. 

" A tear for Poland ?" Slaves alone 

O'er Kosciusko's land shall whine : 
Insult it not with coward moan — 

Slur not with tears his glorious shrine ; 
But, grasping stern the patriot brand — 

The charmed steel which despot fears — 
My cou ltiy, give that suffering land 

Your blood and prowess —not your tears. 

( Great cheering.) 



7 



I hold in my hand a literal translation of the Catechism, 
prepared and published by special order of the Russian govern- 
ment, for the use of the schools and churches in the Polish 
provinces of Russia. I will read you two or three extracts 
from it, to let you know a little more of the humane and re- 
ligious emperor Nicholas : 

"Quest. I. How is the authority of the Emperor to be consi- 
dered in reference to the spirit of Christianity?" 

" Ans. As proceeding- immediate]}' from God." 

" Quest. 5. What kind of obedience do we owe him?" 

u Ans. An entire, passive, and unbounded obedience in every 
point of view." 

" Quest. 12. How are irreverence and infidelity to the Emperor 
to be considered in reference to God?" 

" Ans. As the most heinous sin, the most frightful criminalitv." 

"Quest. 15. What motives have we to fulfil the duties above 
enumerated?" 

" Ans. The motives are twofold — somenatural, others revealed." 
"Quest. 17. What are the supernaturally revealed motives for 
this worship?" 

" Ans. The supernaturally revealed motives are, that the Em- 
peror is the Vicegerent and Minister of God to execute the Divine 
commands ; and, consequently, disobedience to the Emperor is iden- 
tified with disobedience to God himself,* that God will reward us 
in the world to come for the worship and obedience we render the 
Emperor, and punish us severely to all eternity should we disobey 
and neglect to worship him. Moreover, God" commands us to love 
and obey, from the inmost recesses of the heart, every authoritv, and 
particularly the Emperor, not from worldly consideration, but from 
apprehension of the final judgment." — ( Cries of " Oh, oh /" and 
hissing.) 

Such is the doctrine of the church, confirmed by practice, 
as to the worship and fidelity due to the omnipotent Emperor 
of Russia, the Minister and Vicegerent of God ! 

Turn from these words to the streets of Warsaw, and wit- 
ness the heart-rending scene — the carrying away of the Polish 
children. See that fragile form hanging by the wheels of the 

waggon, which contains the fond pledge of a husband's love, 

behold yon mother stabbing to the heart her darling child, and 
then burying the weapon, reeking with the blood of her boy, 

into her own bosom, to prevent the horrid separation ; and 

say, are the words just quoted — "Minister and Vicegerent of 
God" — applicable to the man? Impious wretch !— daring 



8 



profanity ! Ay, he kneels to God ! May those prayers bring 
speedy destruction on his own head ; and then let him descend 
to the grave branded as the scourge of nations — the murderer 
of innocence; and let wild weeds, and the baneful hemlock, 
alone mark where he lies. — ( Great cheering.) 

Though the Polish eagle is trampled in the dust, and cruelty 
and despotism prevail, 'tis not for us to despair. A kind Pro- 
vidence will in due time bring about her restoration, and the 
punishment of her oppressors ; and it is our duty to keep alive 
the interest which her patriotism, her wrongs, her sufferings, 
have excited; to disseminate, by every means in our power, 
authentic intelligence regarding her state and prospects ; and 
thus, by watching over the liberties of others, shew that Bri- 
tons are anxiously desirous for the weal of all mankind, of what- 
ever colour or whatever clime. ( Cheers.) 

Much as Poland has been of late a subject of declamation- 
much as has been done to keep its state constantly before the 
public — much as the treaty of Vienna has been talked of — yet 
much still remains to be said. The patriot never tires when li- 
berty is the theme ; the philanthropist never wearies when the 
amelioration of the condition of his fellow-men demands his at- 
tention ; and Scotchmen, calling to mind the chains which were 
forged to manacle the limbs of their ancestors — the iron rod 
which an Edward wielded over their land — and the glorious li- 
berty which their ancestors achieved for them, cannot listen 
with indifference to the wrongs of Poland, or refuse a prayer for 
its restoration, or a malediction on its ruthless despoiler. 

You have not been witnesses to the horrors, calamities, and 
distresses of an invasion. No merciless enemy has stalked 
throughout our much-loved land, perpetrating the most hor- 
rid cruelties on our defenceless countrymen ; no edict has ever 
been issued commanding the tearing away from our embrace, of 
our infants — our sisters — our brothers ; but " peace and love 
have hitherto been in all our borders." But are we faultless, 
if we raise not our voices against the inhuman sacrifices de- 
manded by one in the form of humanity, from a depopulated and 
deeply-injured land? Is not the command "love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself?" and can we, dare we, look on our neighbour 
dragged from his hearth — torn from his weeping wife and help- 
less children, and consigned to the damp dungeons of St. Pe- 
tersburg, or the unhealthy mines of Siberia — and make no ef- 
fort for his rescue ? or, by our silence, tacitly allow the deed ? 



9 



No, my Countrymen, such a procedure would be contrary to 
humanity, and prove us to be merciless and savage in our feel- 
ings, if not in our actions. (Great cheering.) Do you ad- 
mire the man who gives himself a voluntary sacrifice for his 
country's welfare ? do you applaud the actions of the hero ? 
Here is a land of patriots — a nation of heroes. But what ? 
Their devotedness to their country has been of no avail ; their 
surpassing bravery has surrounded their names with an un- 
dying halo of glory, but has not saved their country; for the 
numberless bands of hireling and cruel soldiery, and the cool 
indifference of surrounding nations, have caused the fell sword 
of the despot to sink deep into her vitals, and has left Poland 
a bleeding trunk! — (Much cheering.) 

But I hear a question — 'tis asked by a selfish man — What 
good can you do, seeing Government has refused to inter- 
fere ? My answer is, We can do much. He who despairs 
of accomplishing any thing which is within the bounds of pos- 
sibility, is no man. Perseverance and Hope is our motto. 
Keep Poland constantly before the public ; blazon abroad 
every fresh atrocity — every new confiscation of this Prince of 
Tortures. By your sympathy, cherish the spark which still 
exists in the bosom of every Pole ; bestow your mite to clothe 
and teach the wanderer ; agitate ! agitate ! in behalf of Poland ; 
and though I do not pretend to a prophet's prescience, I dare 
to say our efforts will be successful, and Poland will arise from 
her ashes a new and glorious fabric, and free as the eagle which 
wings its way over her native mountains. {Cheers.) 

Many of you must have seen in the public prints, an extract 
from the speech of Nicholas to the Council of Administration at 
Warsaw, in which he used the following portentous expressions : 
'^(Srentlemen, you must persevere in your course; and as to 
myself, as long as I live, I will oppose a will of iron to the 
progress of liberal opinions. The present generation is lost; 
but we must labour with zeal and earnestness to improve the 
spirit of that to come. It may perhaps require a hundred years. 
I am not unreasonable. I give you a whole age, but you must 
work without relaxation." What is now your opinion of the 
great and pious Emperor Nicholas? He will oppose a will 
of iron to the progress of liberal opinions ! Sooner may he 
change the seasons, and cast the mountains into the mighty 
deep, or call into being the victims of his unrelenting cruelty, 
than, in this the nineteenth century, prevent the progress of the 



10 



liberal sentiments of man. Let him use every effort — ay, give 
him a hundred years for the purpose ; — let him invent tortures 
unheard of in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and let loose the 
unbridled fury of his mercenary soldiery, — the mind will rise 
superior to his machinations, and man will stand forth, what he 
ought always to have been, a being destined to think and act 
for himself. — ( Great cheering.) 

'Tis not alone on the grounds of sympathy that we call your 
attention to Poland : we must view her in a political light. — 
Hitherto she proved a barrier to Russian aggrandisement ; and 
centuries ago, she presented an undaunted front to Tartar 
hordes, and drove them back to their territories in the East. — 
Were Austria, France, and England, to consult their own in- 
terests, they would place a check upon Russian covetousness 
and lust of power, by restoring Poland to her pristine freedom ; 
and we do not hesitate to say, that, from the hour the estab- 
lishment of a constitutional government should be secured to 
Poland, all just fears for the general tranquillity of Europe 
would cease. Russia has been gradually consolidating her 
power, and extending her territories. All countries, from the 
shores of the Baltic to the western end of North America and 
the isles of Japan, kneel at her nod. She has got a footing in 
Turkey ; and her black eagle, at this moment, almost waves 
over the Dardanelles. 

Is it not then for the interest of our land — for the progress 
of civilization, and the chastisement of the " Moloch of a thou- 
sand massacres" — that Poland regain her seat among the na- 
tions of Europe ? We call upon you, therefore, Men of Glas- 
gow, to bestir yourselves in the cause which we advocate — 
Humanity calls upon you, religion entreats of you, and policy 
demands, that you sleep no longer ; but with awakened convic- 
tion, with united energies, with determined perseverance, you 
join yourselves with the sacred cause of freedom ! — ( Great 
cheering.) 

Mr. John Douglas, of Barloch, then rose, amid loud 
and continued acclamations, and thus addressed the meeting: 
My emancipated fellow-citizens, for I cannot help calling you 
such, when I recollect, that for four hundred years your rights 
as citizens have been usurped, and that only one little month 
has elapsed since they were restored ; and my own heart beats 
high at this moment, and in this place, when I remember how 



11 



lately here my fellow-citizens, by their public spirit and native 
fire, kindled that flame which so rapidly spread into the other 
elective districts, and, triumphing over the enemies of our free- 
dom, carried triumphantly into the municipal chair, such a Lord 
Provost as now presides among you. ( Cheers.) The time is 
not very far remote when the Reformers of Glasgow upheld a 
hopeless cause — nearly as much so as was now that of Ireland. 
We fought for the emancipation of our country, with seemingly 
as little hope of success as we have when we pray for the re- 
storation of Poland. If we had been discouraged, when the 
Government then attempted to terrify us with banishment, and 
the axe, and the gibbet, we would now have been in a condi- 
tion little better than that of Poland ; but by our determination, 
and fearless assertion of our rights, we are now in the position 
of free men. We have not with us to-night, when met to 
sympathise with fallen Poland, a cold Chief Magistrate, jealous 
of every movement in the cause of liberty. We have now one 
who does not require to be importuned to call together his fel- 
low-citizens ; he does not ask the consent of the town clerks, 
whether or not the people of Glasgow shall be allowed to meet 
to express their sentiments ; and when the permission is grant- 
ed, he does not emasculate the resolutions. ( Laughter.) — 
He does not request that every word should be scrutinised and 
altered according to his taste, nor that speakers who are to foU 
low should tell what they mean to say, and that the meeting 
should take place in the smallest possible place that can be 
procured in the city. ( Great laughter.) I have no doubt 
that our present Chief Magistrate will meet 100,000 of his fel- 
low citizens, as fast as he would meet the smallest delegation of 
their number in the smallest room in the city, f Cheers.) — 
Now, then, that we have become free ourselves, what becomes 
us more than that we should throw the first fruits of our 
freedom upon the altar of liberty, and pray for the restoration 
of Poland ? ( Cheers.) We hope that some Scottish 
Bruce will yet arise in Poland, the avenger of Kosciusko. 
f Cheers.) We have just heard an eloquent address from 
the Secretary, who not only possesses the feelings which such 
a theme ought to inspire, but who also has the talents which 
can give effect to those feelings. With such a Secretary, I 
do not wonder that the Association has been, and continues to 
be well supported. Like him, I also regret that the Govern- 
ment has been forced to temporise on this great question 



12 



that just when she has washed from her hands the damned 
blot of Colonial Slavery, she has got another foul blot to re- 
move, which, though the ancient protector of liberty, she stood 
coolly by, and saw perpetrated, in the face of Europe, by three 
military despots. In 1772, when the first perpetration of the 
foul deed took place, that which accounts for the neutrality of 
Britain, instead of an excuse for her conduct, is an aggravation 
of her guilt. How was Britain then employed ? When the 
despots of Europe, offended at the establishment of a represen- 
tative Government in Poland, made war upon that devoted 
country, in order to remove the contamination from their own 
subjects, Britain was hiring the savages of America to assist 
her Own troops in butchering the free Americans, because they 
would not tamely submit to taxation without representation. 
( Immense cheering.) How did Britain act at the second 
partition of Poland ? It was when France had risen as one 
man to assert her freedom, and had shaken off the tyranny of 
the priesthood, and the chains which the old system of mis- 
rule had for centuries bound upon her, and established a repre- 
sentative Government, in imitation, not of the practice, but of 
the spirit of our constitution, that she made war upon her for 
the suppression of her free institutions ; and when she did so, 
it was not likely that she would look with a jealous eye upon 
the suppression of representative Government in Poland. — 
In these two wars we incurred a load of debt, which presses 
heavily on the whole body politic, and paralyses the limbs of 
the State, forcing her to sit by when the despots of the Conti- 
nent were pursuing the policy which best fitted themselves. — 
Mr. Douglas then went on to refer to former periods of Eng- 
lish history, when she stood forward as the arbiter of nations, 
and when her single word was sufficient to awe into obedience 
the most powerful monarchs of the world. He singled out the 
reigns of Elizabeth, of William, and the two first Georges, as 
periods when the power of England stood pre-eminently forth. 
The reign of George III. however, who set at nought the 
counsel of the Whigs, to whose wise policy the influence of 
England abroad was mainly owing, showed a different aspect ; 
and presented this country fighting anywhere, and everywhere, 
the battles of tyranny ; and appearing, instead of the protectress, 
the avowed enemy of all liberty. The consequence was, that 
the immense debt thus contracted, had delivered us over into 
the hands of the Jews, and subjected us to a Jew-rid Govern- 



9 



13 

ment, which could not move with the wonted dignity and in- 
fluence of British Governments. Two unnatural wars against 
liberty had left the country in a state of political paralysis, 
which had forced us to witness, in disgraceful submission, the con- 
quest of Spain by France, just after Wellington had withdrawn 
the armies which had conquered France. Had Britain been 
ruled in the spirit of the third William, counselled by the whigs 
who effected the Revolution — when Louis XVIIL on pretence 
of the Barcelona fever, established the Cordon Sanitaire at the 
Pyrenees — we should have sent a fleet to Cadiz — and offered 
an army to meet the French at Madrid — and the Cortes, with 
which we had formed alliance, would not have been put down 
by the Bourbons — we should have carried on a free trade with 
a free Spanish Government, instead of the petty smuggling from 
Gibraltar, while France had the trade of Spain. ( Loud 
Cheers.) It never can be too often told that even the sor- 
did views of commerce are best served by the liberal foreign 
policy of a domestic Government, and that there is an indisso- 
luble connexion betwixt public liberty and public happiness. 
(Shouts of Applause.) This helpless exhaustion from wars 
compelled us to look on while Austria trode down the liberty 
of Italy, and to suffer Russia to extinguish Poland, although 
in direct defiance of the treaty of Vienna signed by Britain. 
By that treaty, contrary to the old glorious and wise principles 
of Britain, the smaller and freer states (whose example was 
feared by despotic states) were crushed and subjected to larger 
states ; Saxony dissevered, Prussia augmented, Belgium chained 
to Holland, that both might be a more useful maritime out- 
post and tool of Russia. Poland, by a sort of Irish Union of 
Castlereagh's manufacture, was to retain her nationality with a 
separate domestic legislature. This was violated, and a brute, 
in human shape, sent as viceroy to torture Poland by every 
form of degrading and capricious tyranny; to provoke the most 
high-spirited continental nation to that resistance which was 
frustrated — more by the treacherous neutrality of Prussia and 
Austria, than Russian arms ; and Poland is erased from the 
map of Europe — and even her language condemned to oblivion. 
The idea of foreign subjugation of a free nation implies every 
form of misery and oppression ; but the heart of man can 
hardly conceive any thing at once so barbarous and impossible 
as the utter extirpation of a language spoken by twelve millions 
of a brave and old people. ( Cheers.) Let us only fancy the 

B 



14 



idea that in the Russian Divan it should be talked over that 
despotism was unsafe while the English language, the depository 
of all that was worth reading on the subject of liberty, existed, and 
that it should be extirpated. Such a notion enabled us to form 
some idea of the capricious and unrestrained tyranny, the 
hatred, and barbarous stupidity of the northern tyrant. Bri- 
tain and France have lost the opportunity for protecting Poland ; 
and must defer their intervention till the quarrel, not far distant, 
among the partitioning powers, be provoked by the designs 
scarcely concealed, of Russia on Turkey. It would be curious 
if the breaking up of Turkey should restore Poland, which 
once repelled Turkey from the capture of Vienna. But though 
the British government might be necessarily passive for the 
present, because the liberty-loving premier is ridden by the 
Jews, yet the British people, no longer ridden by the Borough - 
mongers, should not be slower to cheer the Polish patriots by 
their voice, than the Hungarians, who, though kept under by 
Austria, cheered the Poles by public applause, and more sub- 
stantial succours. Russia had forced Poland, by oppression, 
to resist, that she might rule the forms of liberty, conceded at 
Vienna by treaty, and cancel, by the right of conquest, as in 
Russia. But even in Russia barbarian despotism was checked 
by barbarous remedies. An imperial adultress had mounted 
the throne vacant by the murder of her husband. The son 
rewarded the assassins who opened the imperial seat, as an ac- 
cessary, after the fact, to imperial parricide. (Loud chews.) 
In Poland the Latin language was currently spoken; and if the 
Poles, with more than Roman wrongs, did not.practise on their 
tyrants Roman vengeance, it was a strong proof of their moral 
restraint. Even the mild and christian Addison, in his cele- 
brated Tragedy, gives sanction to the sentiment, that some arm, 
more lucky than the rest, may reach his heart, and free the 
world from bondage. ( Loud shouts.) This was, however, 
the extreme remedy of Rome, and forbidden to Christians — 
He would not longer by desultory remarks withhold them 
irom hearing many others better and more carefully prepared 
to do justice to the cause ; which some thought could derive 
no benefit from any such present exertion. But he had ever 
been ready to act in such a cause in the most hopeless times, 
and thought any man, in the battle of Freedom, should think 
the victory might depend on his single arm. ( Loud cheering . ) 
He then read the First Resolution — viz. 



15 



That this meeting conceive the anniversary of the 
last Polish Revolution to be the fittest day on which they 
can assemble, to attest their undiminished abhorrence of the 
faithless and cruel conduct of the Autocrat of Russia to- 
wards a gallant and oppressed nation, 

Mr. William Craig seconded the resolution with great 
pleasure, and was sure, from what he knew of their sympathies 
in the cause of oppressed but gallant Poland, that it would be 
carried with great applause* 

Mr. J. B. Gray said, their able and eloquent Secretary- 
had told them how the Emperor of Russia had declared his 
determination of opposing a will of iron to the progress of 
liberal opinions in Europe. He took this declaration as being 
a true one, and asked when, and what were the circumstances 
under which it was made ? It was in the fortifications of Moden, 
which had recently been increased to keep the Poles in still 
greater subjection. To whom was it addressed ? To the 
Council of Administration, which had aided him in crushing 
Poland, and inflicting all the barbarous cruelties which had be- 
fore and since been perpetrated. To those who had assisted 
in carrying off the Polish children — who had trampled down 
every thing sacred in Poland — overthrown their learned Uni- 
versities — and even tried to abolish the very language of the 
people ; who, not content with atrocities unheard of, in crush- 
ing the liberties of Poland, had, when mothers and daughters 
clung for protection to their children and sisters, while being 
dragged into bondage, exposed them, and inflicted before the 
world 200 to 300 lashes, as severely as is usual in the punish- 
ments of mutinous or deserted soldiers. These were the men 
to whom Nicholas addressed his declaration, and, he would ask, 
for what purpose? Did he go there to sympathise with the 
Poles in their sufferings — to hold out for their reception the 
olive branch of peace — to shed a tear over the wrongs of which 
he had been the great cause ? No. He went to sneer at the 
desolation he had produced — to institute a new system of per- 
secution — to encourage the Council to persevere in their di- 
abolical courses, by telling 'them that he was determined to 
oppose a will of iron to the progress of liberal opinions I 
( Cheers.) After some farther observations, Mr. Gray asked 
when this famous declaration was made ? He answered, it was 



16 



on the return of the Emperor from Munchengratz, on his way 
to St. Petersburg, when he called on the peasants of Poland 
to adore him, and ordered those who refused, to have their hats 
nailed on their heads as a punishment ! It was then that he 
is said to have uttered his celebrated declaration. It might or 
might not be true; but whether he uttered the expressions or 
not, he knew that they were written in his heart — that he had 
published them in his acts, and in letters of blood. He 
was the head of the Holy Alliance — the grand mover of it — 
and these were known to be the sentiments of the despots of 
whom that Alliance was composed. What, then, if these 
were the sentiments of the Holy Alliance, were they to con- 
sider, but that the overthrow of Poland was only the first step in 
the great plan of pulling down every thing liberal throughout 
Europe. Their first consideration was, to enquire whether 
or not we were in a fit state to oppose Russia and the 
other despots in this diabolical design. Mr. G. here took a 
view of the strength of the various northern powers ; and then 
referred to the state of England and France, the strongholds 
of free and liberal opinions. In France, free institutions and 
liberal opinions had now settled down, while in England the 
people moved, lived, and had their being in liberal sentiments. 
It was in their public opinion that the strength of France and 
England lay ; and by it they might yet raise their mighty arms, 
and force back on the despots of the North, the threat which 
they had held out against the liberties of man. ( Cheers.) 
It was needless to say that our cause was not identified with the 
cause of Poland. The time might yet come, when our uni- 
versities would be destroyed — when our very language would 
be attempted to be abolished — our children sent in cruel bond- 
age to Siberia, or to colonise the deserts of Russia ; and when 
the same motley scenes may be enacted in England and France 
as have been so fearfully enacted in Poland, if the progress of 
liberal opinions be crushed ; and our country shall be subjected 
to a humiliating bondage — a bondage the more galling just in 
proportion to the opposition we have shown to the progress of 
tyranny, and the support we have given to nature, to religion, 
to freedom, and to patriotism, f Cheers.) Let the tyrant 
boast that he will oppose a will of iron to the progress of 
liberal opinions. That iron will, he may rest assured, shall be 
melted and moulded by the blast-furnace of public opinion, 
and converted into an instrument not merely to defend our- 



I? 



selves, but to carry destruction into the strongholds of Russia 
itself — to disentangle Poland of the chains of the Autocrat, 
and to set on a firm foundation those liberal institutions, from 
which we expect so many blessings to flow to mankind. After 
one or two other remarks, Mr. Gray sat down by proposing 
the second resolution : 

That this Meeting, after the recent declaration at- 
tributed to the Emperor Nicholas, " that he will, as long 
as he lives, oppose a will of iron to the progress of liberal 
opinions,' feel more than ever convinced, that the destruc- 
tion of the nationality of Poland, is but the commencement 
in that campaign which the despots of the North meditate 
against the liberties of Europe, and that the cause of 
Poland is that of civilised man. 

In rising to second this Resolution, Mr. Robert Baird, 
Jun. said: — Mr. Chairman, I rise with much pleasure to 
second the resolution which Mr. Gray has just read. We 
are, Sir, once more met to express oar feelings in a noble and 
a generous cause ; — in a cause in which it can be truly said, 
with an honest and a virtuous pride, that the citizens of Glas- 
gow have ever been in the van. We are, Sir, I say, again as- 
sembled to evince our detestation — our execration — of tyranny, 
of whatever kind, and under whatever form ; our sympathy with 
the sufferings of the virtuous and of the brave ; and our com- 
miseration in the woes and wrongs of the exile. 

After the powerful and pathetic appeal of my friend the Se- 
cretary of the Association, and the other able addresses of the 
gentlemen who have preceded me, an over-wrought or very 
lengthened speech from me would be both ill-timed and unne- 
cessary. Indeed, Gentlemen, I feel assured, that even had you 
not heard the thrilling addresses on the " thrice-told tale " of 
Poland's sufferings, and of Poland's wrongs, with which we 
have been this evening gratified and delighted, you required not 
any thing to excite your compassionate sympathies in behalf of 
the unfortunate exiles from that devoted land ; a land whose 
name has become a " household word " from the one end of 
civilised Europe to the other, wherever there is a heart that 
can feel for the sufferings of the virtuous and of the brave — 
wherever there is a tongue that can execrate the despot and the 
oppressor; — a land whose name has for almost a century been 
b 2 



18 



the favourite theme of the orator's declamation, and of the 
poet's dream ; and that has called forth the noblest efforts, the 
most inspired and inspiring strains, of our illustrious fellow- 
citizen — the Poet of Freedom — the Bard of Hope. — f Cheers. J 
Since, Sir, the disastrous issue of that struggle, when first 

" Sarmatia fell unwept, without a crime f 

Since the first infamous and execrable partition of Poland's ter- 
ritory by the sceptred robbers in the year 1772, what has the 
page of Polish history presented, but a narrative of unexampled 
crime and oppression on the one hand — of unparalleled, unri- 
valled devotion and heroism on the other? Reiterating, Sir, the 
undenied and undeniable facts that have been reverberated by 
societies like that whose anniversary we are here met to cele- 
brate, from the one end of Europe to the other ; that have been 
proclaimed in a British Parliament and in a French Senate, and 
that have met with an immediate admission from men of every 
party and of every creed : — repeating, I say, Sir, many of those 
facts which you have already heard from some of the gentle- 
men who have preceded me this evening, I might again tell 
you of the depth of that debt of gratitude which Europe 
owes to Poland, for having protected her from the desolating 
inroads of Mahomedan barbarians ; for the inestimable service 
rendered by her to the cause of civilization in the sixteenth cen- 
tury, when Sobieski and his gallant Poles interposed themselves, 
as a wall of living and insurmountable valour, betwixt the fer- 
tile plains of Europe and the excommunicating hordes of the 
Turkish empire — an interposition, but for which the crescent 
of the Moslem might have glittered on every capital in West- 
ern Europe ; and an interposition by which a benefit was con- 
ferred on the sacred cause of religion, which it were impossible 
— which it were impious to calculate. Or, Gentlemen, I 
might again adduce to you individual instances, out of the many 
thousands on authentic record, of the unexampled heroism and 
chivalrous devotion to the cause of freedom, which was exhibit- 
ed during their late unequal contest with their Russian oppres- 
s )x'. When, alone and unbefriended, save by their gallant 
Hungarian brethren, a remnayit of the once numerous and 
powerful nation of Poland, maintained, for the space of ten 
months, a continuous contest with that gigantic power, of 
which, it is but too true, the noblest and most powerful nations 



19 

of Europe have shewn an unworthy, an unnecessary dread — 
(cheers J — maintained with that power a contest which, un- 
equal as it was, would, there is little reason to doubt, have been 
brought to a very different termination but for the interested and 
deceitful machinations of the Austrian and of the Prussian 
Courts. Or, Gentlemen, I might once more bring before your 
notice the deeds of wanton and atrocious cruelty, of which the 
Polish territory was made the theatre, even after the cessation 
of actual hostilities. Yes, my fellow-citizens, atrocious as were 
the wrongs which Poland sustained at the hand of her gi- 
gantic oppressor, during the time the unequal contest was in 
dependence, they sink into comparative insignificance, when 
brought into contrast with those cold-blooded atrocities which 
were committed after all resistance was at an end. When, in 
the attempted execution of his proud and despotic boast, " that 
he would make a Poland of Siberia, and a Siberia of Poland!" 
the Emperor Nicholas, with a zeal worthv of a better cause, 
set himself to the unhallowed task of stifling or extirpating those 
fond feelings of predilection for country and for home, which 
are endeared to the heart of every freeman, and which burn with 
such peculiar intensity in the breast of every son of devoted 
Poland ; to root out those feelings of virtue, and of patriotism, 
which breathe in the aspiration of our lamented poet — 

u This is mr own, my native land." 

On subjects such as these, Sir, it were easy to expatiate; 

many of them, have, however, been already this evening more 
ably pourtrayed than they can be by me ; and I confess that 
over such deeds of horror I would, for a time, gladly draw the 
veil. From the experience of the past, let us gather lessons of 
wisdom and of prudence for the future. Again a mvsterious 
Providence has decreed that Poland should fall, and yet a little 
longer is she destined to lie beneath the iron rule of her despo- 
tic oppressor ; again have the most patriotic exertions of her sons 
proved unavailing, and the sun of her freedom has set itself in 
darkness and in blood. But when, Sir, I would ask, was there 
ever exhibited to the world a more noble, a more glorious, I 
had almost said a more enviable, fall. Once more has this val- 
iant, chivalrous, and high-minded people, plucked the wreath 
of an imperishable histrionic fame, even from the midst of ha- 
voc and defeat. Yes, Nation of Heroes ! again have ye fallen ; 



20 



but your very disasters are encompassed with a glory so sur- 
passing, that the most splendid and successful achievements of 
ancient or of modern times, fade and grow dim before it.— 
(Great cheering.) 

Dark, however, Sir, as are the clouds which for the present 
obscure the horizon of Polish liberty, it were an improper — an 
impious aspersion on the justice of an all-ruling power to as- 
sume that these things are destined to continue. A perpetuity 
of despotism is a monstrous exhibition, which the world has 
never seen, and which the world will never see. A day of 
dread accounting — a day of retributive justice — will come. The 
gigantic power of Rome — a power more noble far, and formed 
of better and more enduring materials than that of Russia — 

quailed and grew dim before a seemingly inadequate cause 

After she had for so many centuries continued to oppress the 
nations with a grinding despotism — after she had drained to 
the dregs the cup of her enormities — her destinies were accom- 
plished, and she withered from the theatre of time, leaving be- 
hind her scarcely a memorial of her former greatness other than 
the ruins of her overgrown capital. It is not, Sir, arrogating 
too much of the spirit of prophecy to affirm, that thus will it 
be with the overgrown and ill-cemented mass of the Russian 
empire. And inasmuch, Sir, as her blighting power has never 
been relieved by the noble and redeeming virtues which gilded 
the fetters of the Roman despotism ; and inasmuch as her over- 
grown dominions are bound together by a tenure much less ad- 
vantageous, and much less strong; so proportionably more fa- 
tal and more rapid will the day of her declension be. Then 
will the day of justice come to unhappy Poland ; and, in the 
re-establishment of her nationality and independence, the best 
safeguard will be afforded to the other nations of Europe, that 
their liberties will never be successfully assailed by the inroads 
of despotic power, from the deserts of the north. Let us, Sir, 
hope, with every true friend of humanity, that this may be a 
bloodless task — that it may be the work of a moral though ir- 
resistible power. But should it be otherwise decreed — should 
Poland be again destined to draw the sword of her indepen- 
dence — again to assume " the bold front of war " — let it be our 
task to ensure her doing so in a better, in a more propitious 
hour. By encouraging societies like the present all over our 
land, let us in the meantime enjoy the generous satisfaction of 
pouring the balm of sympathy into the heart of the exile, and let 



21 



us be prepared, when the day of more effective exertion does 
come, for joining in that universal burst of indignation and re- 
solution, which shall peal from the one end of civilized Europe 
to the other; and which, in realization of the poet's dream, 

" Shall blanch the tyrant's cheek in many a varying clime." 

I sit down, Sir, by most cordially seconding Mr. Gray's re- 
solution. ( Great applause.) 

Mr. Weir then addressed the meeting as follows : — Gen- 
tlemen — -It is well said by the first resolution which you have 
adopted, that the Anniversary of the last Polish Revolution 
is most appropriately celebrated by meeting thus to express our 
enduring sympathy for the Poles, and detestation of their 
oppressor. It has been declared with equal truth by the second, 
that the war of extermination, carried on against them by Ni- 
cholas, aims in truth at the subversion of liberty throughout 
Europe. Gentlemen, it is a singular coincidence that this 
very Anniversary should furnish us with a new proof of the 
justice of that declaration. The London Journals, which have 
reached this city by to-day's mail, bring the intelligence of a 
fresh arrival of persecuted Polish patriots on the shores of Bri- 
tain, flying from new devices of tyranny. The mystery of the 
convention of Munchengratz has already been solved by the ac- 
tions of the conspirators. On one and the same day, has a 
blow been struck alike against the security of the Polish refu- 
gees, and the independence of the German soil. Prussia and 
Austria have shown that they valued less the inviolability of 
their territory, — that inviolability best shewn by extending the 
rights of hospitality to exiles for purely political causes, with- 
out asking what their political creed might be, — than the pre- 
servation of the unholy faith they had pledged to Russia, to co- 
operate in the extirpation of independent principles from their 
states. We read that on one day the Polish exiles throughout 
the Austrian dominions were arrested — the Russian envoys and 
Austrian authorities co-operating in the arrest — threatened 
with death if they attempted to escape — and forced either to 
accept voluntarily of the Russian amnesty, or embark vo- 
luntarily for America. On the same day, the same game was 
played over in Prussia. There too the Poles were arrested by the 
local authorities, at the bidding of Russian emissaries, and 



22 



forced either, by accepting the amnesty, to acknowledge the 
power of Russia, or to ship themselves beyond the broad At- 
lantic. While this was carrying on— and my cheek tingles 
with shame when I speak it — in Hanover, where a brother of 
our king sways a delegated sceptre, the records of the Polish 
Diet were tamely and ignominiously yielded up, on the first 
demand of the Russian emissary. ( Groans, and cries of in- 
dignation.) The king of Bavaria, grateful for the kingdom 
of Greece bestowed upon his son, had hastened to express his 
sycophancy to Russia, by debarring such Poles as were seeking 
refuge on the free soil of France, the poor privilege of passing 
through his dominions. Even in Saxony, a country which had 
long acknowledged the same sceptre as Poland, and where a 
feeling of brotherhood knit both prince and inhabitant most 
closely to the exiles, the will of the autocrat of Russia had been 
reluctantly obeyed. Here, however, an Englishman had vin- 
dicated the character of his country. When all the other am- 
bassadors of Europe looked coldly on, Sir Charles Forbes had 
taken the Polish exiles under his protection, and furnished 
them with passports, by the sanction of which they had been 
enabled to reach Britain — ( Cheers, and great applause ) — 
to tell us that the league of Northern Despots had now most 
unequivocally demonstrated its resolution to extirpate free sen- 
timent from the territories of its members. They have now 
thrown down the gauntlet against freedom, and without the 
power of evasion, stand forward as her foes. They have dared 
her to a war of extermination. 

Gentlemen, when last I had the honour of addressing the 
Polish Association, I ventured to predict the approach of an 
European revolution. Since that time, it has been surely though 
silently approaching ; but now it would seem to be sweeping 
onward. The tide of despotism is setting rapidly in ; it is 
rushing down the Dardanelles ; it is pouring along the Baltic ; 
it is swelling and surging over the plains of Poland. Let it ! 
The rock is ready upon which it is destined to break, and be 
thrown backward in froth and foam. ( Great cheering.) — 
.Though the governments of France and England may stand 
tamely by, the people of these nations feel that the cause is 
their own. From the time that Luther spoke out his burning 
words, there has existed, along with and despite of all narrower 
national predilections, a community of feeling throughout 
Europe. That great republic has ever since been divided into 



23 



two parties — that of freemen ready to maintain the rights of 
all ; and that of despots, and their tools, sworn to uphold the 
self-will of a few. Our party has been daily increasing : its 
cause is the cause of unfettered private judgment — of the 
rights of man ; and we know that the cause can be assailed 
in no individual instance without danger to all. Let then 
the flags of England and France hang idly by the wall ; in- 
dividual exertion may do much. When the hour comes, the 
soldier can give his sword to the cause of Poland — the citizen 
can contribute from his wealth — the poor can give their prayers 
— and they are strong in the eye of Heaven. The analogy 
of history teaches us, even under the most disastrous circum- 
stances, to augur a triumphant issue to the contest. If we 
look back to the period when the battle between kings and 
people first began — to the time when Holland first spurned 
a foreign despot and his inquisition, we find Philip of Spain 
acting exactly after the fashion of his successor Nicholas. The 
constitutional judges and rulers of the land were displaced to 
make way for foreign and mercenary soldiers. It was declared 
treason even for the heavy hearts of the bereaved citizens to 
vent their feelings in a sigh. If there was one mind brave 
and pure enough to maintain its innate dignity, death or exile 
was its doom. The royal bigot gave what he called peace to 
Holland — the peace of a churchyard. As far as the influ- 
ence of the Spanish Court extended, the exiles were denied an 
asylum in any neighbouring state. What was the consequence ? 
The Belgian patriots, unable to find rest for their feet on the 
land, sought refuge on the wide and homeless waters. There 
they carried on the fight with the same unflinching resolution, as 
on a more stable element. The treasure ships of their oppressor 
became their spoil, and furnished them with the means to con- 
quer back their native land. From amid the surging waves, 
heralded by the " sea-bird's clang," they returned in triumph to 
homes which their red right hands had made free. The story 
is one of the sixteenth century. Three hundred years have 
sped their course, and in the widening circle of human events, 
it is about to be acted over again, for the establishment of a 
more enduring order of things. Three hundred years have 
sped their course ; liberty is stirring her wings for a fresh flight ; 
and from the vaults of the Escurial, " the royal vampire starts 
again to view," prepared to baffle her endeavours. 



24 



It is difficult to contemplate the acts of Nicholas, without 
seeing in him the very spirit of the old monkish monarch ani- 
mating another frame. The one saw, and the other sees, in 
men, nothing but a horde of soulless animals, who, without 
wills of their own, ought mechanically to work out his behest, 
in the eternity above and around him, nothing but the shadow 
of his own soul, magnified by the cloudy atmosphere into more 
gigantic power, and more relentless self-will. To such preten- 
sions the free mind of man never can submit. There is a spi- 
rit-enduring opposition burning in the hearts of the Polish na- 
tion, as pure and as unquenchable as lighted the Belgians on 
to victory. There is a sympathy for their sufferings yet more 
universally diffused. If the Colignys and Montmorencys of 
France had, even in their comparatively rude age, generosity 
and penetration sufficient to identify the cause of the Dutch 
Protestants with that of the Huguenots, surely the leaders of 
liberal opinion in our day will not lag behind them. The ty- 
rant feels that such a spirit exists ; he feels that the knowledge 
of its existence lends to his victims fresh strength to presevere 
in the struggle. This stern, low whisper has rustled through 
his regal halls, chilling his heart, and making him grow pale, 
amid his guards. We read his consciousness of the truth in 
his very efforts to conceal it. His care to prevent one sob of 
Poland being heard in Europe — his eagerness to banish from 
our hemisphere the exiles, living monuments of his tyranny — 
all bespeak the desperate determination of a man to shut his 
ears against the whispers even of his own heart. But the 
very energy. of his struggles must frustrate his intentions. Like 
men scattering firebrands in attempting to tread out a fire, he 
but spreads the conflagration more widely. Every new act of 
oppression but kindles more fiercely the flame of hatred against 
him — every Pole, driven to seek a new resting place, but 
widens the circle of his foes. Let this be the encouragement 
of all who are called upon to take an active part in the struggle 
against him. Let them believe that they must succeed. If 
they feel their strength fail, let them strive to struggle one step 
farther ; if they fall, let it be forward, with their arm outstretched 
towards their enemy. Gentlemen, if the sentiments I have 
expressed be also yours, I need not doubt that you will agree 
to embody them in the resolution I am about to read for 
your adoption. ( Tremendous cheering.) 



25 



That this Meeting recognise, in the words of Nicholas, 
the spirit revived which animated Philip of Spain in his 
crusade against the infant liberties of Holland ; that they 
gladly augur a similar triumphant issue to the struggle, 
and fervently hope that the leaders of liberal opinion in 
the France and England of the nineteenth century, may 
be to Poland what Coligny and Sydney were to the Bel- 
gian provinces in the sixteenth. 

Mr. Wood seconded the resolution, and remarked, that 
the day of hope was past, and the day of action come. He 
would appeal to their pride. Supposing Napoleon had been 
in life, and in power, would he have paused a moment in send- 
ing an armed force against Russia ? Would he have delayed 
in sending a fleet to frighten Russia into a proper treatment of 
Poland ? He would not have hesitated a moment, and shall 
we ? No. 

Mr. Thomas Davidson then rose, and addressed the Meet- 
ing as follows : — It had been asked what this association and others 
of a similar description could do for ameliorating the condition 
of the brave Poles. He answered, they could do much ; they 
had been the means of directing the attention of the public 
towards those exiles who had sought our shores for safety, and 
to whom a people who sympathised with them in their mis- 
fortunes, had generously given support. In this view alone, these 
associations were of great utility. But, besides these, they also 
tended, nay, they were the only means of keeping the wrongs and 
sufferings of Poland fresh in the public memory, as topics of 
abiding interest to this country, for Polish politics were iden- 
tified with British politics. He believed that the struggle 
which had terminated so unsuccessfully for the cause of freedom, 
was a blow aimed at our own liberty, and the liberty of Europe. 
Russia, with a will of iron, a heart of adamant, and a front of 
brass, was attempting to crush the extension of liberal principles, 
and to increase her power and territory ; but he trusted that 
the people of Britain and France would always consider their own 
freedom to be incomplete, so long as Poland was enslaved and 
oppressed. All indeed might seem lost at present for Poland, 
but her honour, and the memory of her wrongs, 

But these shall be her resurrection —men shall see 

Again that brightness in her eye she had when she was free. 

3 3 



26 



He would take another view of the matter. Many things had 
been said about the timidity of the present government, but there 
were four letters which stared them in the face — letters as fear- 
ful and threatening in their nature as were those presented to 
the eye of Belshazzar — they were D-E-B-T. Now unless 
this intolerable burden was considerably lightened in its pres- 
sure, Britain could no longer assume that proud and impera- 
tive station which she once held, nor be able to support or 
give refuge to the oppressed. It was of great importance that 
the friendly feeling with which the people of England and 
France now looked towards each other as friends who had 
too long been kept separate by a faction which encouraged 
ancient animosities, should be expressed through the medium 
of these associations for the oppressed Poles. The noise of 
the first cannon fired upon the banks of the Po, would rever- 
berate to the shores of the Vistula, and would be the signal for 
the resurrection of the liberties of Europe. While the asso- 
ciation had these objects in view, it was surely good for them 
to be here, and having gained freedom for themselves, he con- 
sidered it to be their duty to attempt to spread it over the world. 
C Great cheering.) — Mr. Davidson then read the Fourth 
Resolution : 

That this meeting hail with joy, the active exertions 
of every kindred Association in Great Britain and France, 
as tending to bind Poland more firmly on the memory of 
the free, keep avjake the guilty fears of the oppressor, and 
thus accelerate the hour of retributive justice. 

Mr. Southerden seconded the motion. He congra- 
tulated the meeting on having among them a Chief Magistrate, 
whose love of liberty was above suspicion. Above all, he 
rejoiced that he saw the mothers and daughters of Scotland, 
joining heartily with them in the cause of Poland, conscious 
that where the bright eye of beauty shone, in approval of any 
cause, and particularly the cause of Freedom, it could never 
fail. ( Cheers.) 

Mr. M'Gregor then proposed— That the following 
Gentlemen be appointed the Committee of Management of 
the Glasgow Polish Association for the succeeding year : 



27 



President. 
The Hon. the LORD PROVOST. 

Vice-Presidents. 

James Lumsden, Esq. 
William Weir, Esq. 
James Salmon, Esq. 

Council. 



Messrs. Thomas Muir, 
John Douglas, 
Wm. Dixon, 
Daniel M'Nee, 
Wm. Bennet, 
Wm. Gilmour, 
Wm. Craig, 
James Beith, 
Wm. Keddie, 
Wm. Lyon, 
Wm. Thomson, 
John Reid, 



Dr. Scouler, 
Messrs. T. Davidson, Jun, 
James Reid, 
Andrew Lang, 
David Allan, 
Robert Baird, 
Wm. Lumsden, 
J. A. Fullerton, 
Charles Callam, 
W. W. Watson, 
Alex. Miller, 
Henry Birkmyre. 



Treasurer. 
Mr. Robert Stuart. 

Hon. Secretary. 
Mr. John Gullan. 

Mr. Andrew Lang seconded the motion. 

Mr. Beith was glad that it had fallen to his lot, on this 
interesting occasion, to submit to them a motion which he was 
sure would be acceptable to them all, not only on account of 
the important and interesting object for which they had met, 
but by being, for the first time, presided over by the Lord 
Provost of Glasgow ; he therefore moved that the thanks of 
the meeting be given, not to the Lord Provost, but to their 
own Lord Provost, which was received with loud and con- 
tinued applause, and carried by the acclamation of the meeting. 

The meeting then broke up a little after 10 o'clock. 



ADDRESS OF THE NAT TONAL COMMITTEE OF THE 
POLISH EMIGRATION, TO THE POLISH ASSOCIA- 
TIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 

Friends of Poland ! 

Thrown by the disasters of our native country upon a 
foreign soil, we were every where welcomed by the people, with that 
generous sympathy due to proud misfortune, but unvanquished patriot- 
ism. Unsatiated and unsatiable in his sanguinary hate, the barbarian 
usurper still pursues us in our dearest affections. He seeks to exter- 
minate our nation by all the brutal means of revengeful despotism 

The noblest and most virtuous of his victims are punished worse than 
the vilest criminals ; his imperial dagger is plunged into the bravest 
and purest bosoms; his unsparing arm tears the child from its mother's 
breast; the husband from his desolate wife ; violates all the kindlier and 
kindred feelings of civilized society, decimates an entire population, and 
impiously dares to plant the standard of murder on the sacred sanc- 
tuaries of religion itself ! — 

" He makes a desert, and he calls it peace." 

What resource then remains to us, the victims of such horrible atro- 
cities, but to lift up our united voice, and plead the cause of Poland 
before the great tribunal of European justice ? And where can we 
address ourselves with more cheering confidence, with more inspiring 
hope, than to the aegis of freedom, the barrier of oppression, the refuge 
of the oppressed — to England ; to that high-minded people, who have 
already proved the profound interest they take in our calamities — the 
bitter and just indignation they feel at the criminal and cowardly con- 
duct of Russia. 

The Members of the Committee, representing the general wishes of 
the emigrant Poles, feel it a pleasing duty to express, in the name of 
their patriot countrymen, their sentiments of sincere admiration and 
undying gratitude, for the numerous proofs of sympathy they have ex- 
perienced from the English nation. The Committee particularly ad- 
dresses itself to the Polish Associations established in England, which, 
by their noble ardour and activity, act so successfully on public opi- 
nion; feeding the sacred flame of Polish nationality; exhibiting the 
rights and griefs of Poland, and thus preparing the propitious moment 
of her regeneration. 

Friends of Poland! — Believe us, that moment is not so distant as 
may be imagined. Divine Providence will accomplish what earthly 
justice and humanity have begun. Honour to those who aid the op- 
pressed against the oppressor ! History will hallow their memories, 
and the triumph of the holy cause they protected, will be graven on the 
breast of posterity for ever ! The emigrants of Poland deplore, with 
calm and dignity, the misfortunes of their beloved country, but they de- 
spair not. No — their energy, their perseverance, is even equivalent to 



29 



the afflictions of their natal soil ! The rapid progress of the Polish 
cause in England, the fountain of numerous Polish Associations; the 
petitions which flow in from every quarter in favour of Poland, and 
which by their unanimity give such a powerful impulse to the govern- 
ment ; the address to the Polish nation, signed by nearly a hundred 
thousand persons, are eloquent and positive manifestations of public 
opinion in England, and excite the most grateful sympathy in every 
Polish heart. 

Friends of Poland ! — Go on with the same unabating zeal in the 
glorious cause of Polish independence ; avenge jam insulted honour 
— your national, your proverbial, good faith— compromised by the an- 
nihilation of Polish nationality, which was solemnly guaranteed by 
Great Britain. The whole of civilized Europe will hail your noble, 
your untiring, and, ultimately, your successful efforts. Let all the 
principal towns of England follow the noble examples of London, 
Hull, Birmingham, Sheffield, Norwich, Glasgow, &c. and, like them, 
form similar Polish Associations. Let your popular Parliament — the 
representatives of the British people, and guardians of British liberty 
— continue to receive your energetic evidences on behalf of Poland. Let 
the public be more and more enlightened on the Polish question ; let 
them know all the £i tender mercies" invented and heaped on us by our 
cruel oppressor, who is himself the only rebel ; for it was he who first 
violated the treaty imposed by Russian influence ; for it is he who 
now basely profits by the apathetic neutrality of those same states who 
guaranteed the maintenance of Poland's nationality, to crush a coun- 
try over which he has not the shadow of legitimate sway. The aus- 
picious alliance of France with England, which has exploded the an- 
cient prejudices of national rivalry, and cemented the friendship of the 
two people by their common interest and mutual love of liberty, is for 
us an assuring harbinger of our country's approaching recognition. 
The increasing political influence of these two great nations, encourages 
and justifies our anxious hope, that the hour of our deliverance is not 
remote ; as their enlightened views for the attainment of general peace 
and general freedom are the same. 

Persevere, then, noble friends of Poland, in your generous labours, 
and you will have the glory of restoring twenty millions of Poles to 
their native homes and hearths ; of arresting the march of despotism ; 
of curbing the ambitious designs of Russia ; and, finally, of consolidat- 
ing the peace and liberty of Europe, amidst the applauses and bless- 
ings of the whole human race. 

Done at Paris, 25th Feb. 1833. 

The President Dwernickj, General, 
Le Lieutenant General Remtnseez. 
Le General de Bde. J. Sierawskij. 
(Signed,) v^ev. Morawski, Deputy. 

\> ones Leclochowzsi, Deputy". 
Francis Wotowski, Deputy. 
Andre Plichta, Conseiller d' Etat. 
"The Secretary Andrew Slouacz ynski. 



ILLt, PRINTER. 



■0 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: £002 

PreservaiionTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



